1. Field
Embodiments of the disclosure relate to electronic devices, and more particularly, in one or more embodiments, to switching elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
Routers are typically used in telecommunication networks, such as the Internet, to transmit packets of information from one location to another. Core routers are capable of routing large amounts of data at very high speeds, and are often used to form part of the backbone of a wide area network, such as the Internet. Currently core routers can transmit data at speeds of 10 Mbps to up to 10 Gbps, and even higher. Core routers can include a number of card slots with different line cards that are interconnected via a backplane. The core router can receive data on an ingress card and then transmit the data over an egress card using a switching fabric. In addition, the different cards can interface with different mediums, and the core routers can receive data via one medium and transmit the same data over a different medium using a different line card. For example, a core router can receive data from a fiber-optic channel via one line card and then transmit the same data over a DSL channel via another line card.
Similarly, edge routers can be used to connect a user terminal to a first branch of a network, such as the Internet. Similar to core routers, edge routers can receive information over a first medium and then transmit that same information over a different medium. In addition, edge routers can transmit the data at very high speeds, and can aggregate the data received prior to transmitting the data to the next hop, or the next router.
Due to the speeds at which core and edge routers (also referred to as network routers) operate, poor impedance matching between the different line cards within the router can lead to reflections on the data line, lower signal-to-noise ratio, and errors. As previously mentioned, to transmit the data from an ingress line card to an egress line card, the network router can use a switching fabric in one of the card slots. In many instances, two switching fabrics are included within the network router. The first switching fabric is a primary switching fabric and the second switching fabric is a backup switching fabric, which can be used if the primary switching fabric cannot be used.
At times, it is desirable to analyze the data within a line card for informational or debugging purposes. Analyzing the data as it passes through the line card can be difficult and typically uses a number of additional components on the line card. The additional components used to analyze the data take additional space on the line card and make it increasingly difficult for the line card to contain all the components needed to receive and transmit data.